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1. Last week we whined that none of the Mid-South's college football teams were going bowling. Uh, perhaps we jumped the gun on that one. The Memphis Tigers, with superstar DeAngelo Williams back in action, beat Southern Miss for the first time since 1984. One more win, and they are bowl-eligible. All they have to do is beat the Hundering T -- uh, we mean the Thundering Herd of Marshall.

2. Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox file lawsuits against a Memphian, claiming he swapped their movies illegally over the Internet. Among them: Hitch, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Napoleon Dynamite. Speaking of dynamite, if the studios would stop making so many bombs, maybe people would be more willing to pay for a movie ticket.

3. Rhodes student Erin Lawton saves Germantown about $50,000 by realizing that leftover furnishings from Rhodes College's Burrow Library -- no longer needed after the school opened its new Barrett Library -- could be used for Germantown's new genealogical library. That's good thinking. Lawton graduates in May; perhaps she should consider running for City Council.

4. The city gives away tons of free mulch at Halle Stadium and Martin Luther King Riverside Park. Yes, free. We have an idea. Why not sell it, and then use the money to lower our utility bills? Just a thought.

5. A civil court jury finds actor Robert Blake guilty of killing his wife, former Memphian Bonny Lee Bakley. We guess jurors didn't buy his clever "I didn't shoot her because I had gone back to the restaurant to get my gun" defense.

More by Michael Finger

Thirty-seven years ago this week, Memphis became a city in fear. In the late summer of 1969, a cold-blooded killer stalked the streets, and over a period of 28 days, police made one grisly discovery after another. In the end, the slayer was captured after a wild chase by a posse of ordinary citizens. After his arrest, George Howard Putt told reporters, Id do it all again.
The murder spree began on the afternoon of August 14, 1969 ...